Rincón de la Vieja National Park

Liberia, the capital of Guanacaste province, lies about 215 kilometers northwest of San José on the Interamericana. Most visitors arrive via Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport, using the city as a base for exploring Pacific coast beaches and Rincón de la Vieja National Park.Liberia earned its nickname "White City" from the light gravel that once paved its streets and the whitewashed colonial houses. Some of these, along with the 19th-century Ermita de la Agonía, are preserved in the city center.With over 50,000 inhabitants, the city serves as a commercial and administrative hub, not a resort. Around Parque Central, you'll find banks, supermarkets, and simple restaurants, making Liberia a practical stopover before or after onward travel.If you don't head straight to the coast after landing, half a day is enough for a stroll through the center. For Rincón de la Vieja, the city is a good base; access to the Las Pailas sector takes about an hour.

Guanacaste is Costa Rica's dry northwestern province on the Pacific coast, approximately 215 kilometers northwest of San José. You come here for the beaches of the Pacific coast, for volcanic landscapes like the Rincón de la Vieja, and for the light blue Río Celeste.From November to April, there's hardly any rain here, which makes Guanacaste the country's most reliable beach destination during this time; from May to October, it usually rains daily. The landscape is characterized by pastureland, dry forest, and volcanic ranges; the Area de Conservación Guanacaste in the north is a UNESCO World Heritage site.The capital is Liberia, home to the country's second international airport, the Aeropuerto Daniel Oduber Quirós. From there, you can reach the beaches around Tamarindo as quickly as the national parks inland.

The Río Celeste is a glowing light blue river in the Tenorio Volcano National Park in Guanacaste, near the town of Bijagua de Upala in the north of the country. You come here for its turquoise waterfall and the spot where two clear rivers mix and the water suddenly turns blue.The color appears when the volcanically influenced Río Buenavista meets the acidic Quebrada Agria: Tiny aluminum silicate particles clump together and scatter sunlight. After heavy rains, the water is murkier and less blue.The Misterios del Tenorio hiking trail starts at El Pilón Station and leads to a viewpoint, Laguna Azul, the Borbollones where gas bubbles from the riverbed, and the Teñideros where the rivers meet. The stairs to the waterfall were only partially open from mid-2025 after damage; check before visiting which sections are open.Swimming is prohibited in the National Park. Tickets are booked online through the protected area authority SINAC, and entry is granted in time slots; in case of bad weather, the park may close at short notice.

Arenal Volcano National Park protects the roughly 1,630-meter-high cone of Arenal and its forested flanks in the Arenal and Monteverde region, about 30 minutes drive west of La Fortuna. You come here to hike across solidified lava fields and see the volcano up close.Arenal erupted unexpectedly on July 29, 1968, burying the villages of Tabacón, Pueblo Nuevo, and San Luís and claiming dozens of lives. It remained continuously active until 2010, and has been dormant since. The park was established in 1991 and covers approximately 121 square kilometers.Visitors can access two sectors. In the Volcán sector, near the visitor center, short, mostly flat trails like Las Coladas (approx. 2 km) lead over lava flows from the 1992 eruption, while El Ceibo (approx. 3 km) goes through secondary forest. The Península sector is a few minutes' drive away on Lake Arenal and offers views of the lake and volcano via the Los Miradores trail and an observation tower.The summit itself is closed to visitors; the national protected area authority SINAC explicitly warns against illegal summit hikes. Admission is charged at the sectors, with current prices and opening hours published by SINAC. Come as early as possible, as the summit often becomes cloud-covered as the day progresses.

Arenal and Monteverde form the green highlands in northwestern Costa Rica, about three to four hours' drive northwest of San José. You travel here for the cone-shaped Arenal Volcano with its hot springs and for the cloud forests of Monteverde, two of the country's most visited natural destinations.Arenal was continuously active from 1968 to 2010; today it is dormant, and around the town of La Fortuna, hiking trails over old lava fields, suspension bridges, a waterfall, and numerous hot springs have developed. Southwest of it, beyond Lake Arenal, lies the Monteverde highlands with its privately and communally managed cloud forest reserves.By road around the lake, the drive between both destinations is longer than the map suggests. Many travelers therefore combine it with a transfer by boat across Lake Arenal.